$re = '/parent\s*\{\s*type\s*\{[^{}]*subtype\s+TestSubType\s*\{[^{}]*element\s+TestElement\s*\{[^{}]*attributes\s*\{[^{}]*value\s+testvalue[^{}]*\}[^{}]*owner\s+person1/m';
$str = 'parent {
type {
subtype TestSubType {
element TestElement {
attributes {
name testname;
description testdescription;
count 1234;
value testvalue;
}
owner person1;
}
}
subtype TestSubType1 {
element TestElement1 {
attributes {
name testname1;
description testdescription1;
count 1;
value 1
}
owner person2;
}
}
subtype TestSubType2 {
element TestElement2 {
attributes {
name testname2;
description testdescription2;
count 2;
value 2
}
owner unknown;
}
}
subtype TestSubType3 {
element TestElement3 {
attributes {
name testname3;
description testdescription3;
count 3;
value 3
}
owner unknown;
}
}
subtype TestSubType3 {
element TestElement4 {
attributes {
name testname4;
description testdescription4;
count 4;
value 4
}
owner unknown;
}
}
subtype TestSubType4 {
element TestElement5 {
attributes {
name testname5;
description testdescription5;
count 5;
value 5
}
owner unknown;
}
}
subtype TestSubType5 {
element TestElement6 {
attributes {
name testname6;
description testdescription6;
count 6;
value 6
}
owner unknown;
}
}
subtype TestSubType6 {
element TestElement7 {
attributes {
name testname7;
description testdescription7;
count 7;
value 7
}
owner unknown;
}
}
subtype TestSubType7 {
element TestElement8 {
attributes {
name testname8;
description testdescription8;
count 8;
value 8
}
owner unknown;
}
}
subtype TestSubType8 {
element TestElement9 {
attributes {
name testname9;
description testdescription9;
count 9;
value 9
}
owner unknown;
}
}
subtype TestSubType9 {
element TestElement10 {
attributes {
name testname10;
description testdescription10;
count 10;
value 10
}
owner unknown;
}
}
subtype TestSubType10 {
element TestElement11 {
attributes {
name testname11;
description testdescription11;
count 11;
value 11
}
owner unknown;
}
}
}
}
';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php